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Deadly Masters : Four Films by Joseph Kuo
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray B - United Kingdom - Eureka Review written by and copyright: Eric Cotenas (12th October 2023). |
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The Film
 Born in 1935, Taiwanese film director Joseph Kuo's directorial career started in the late fifties in a variety of genres; however, he found the most success outside of Taiwan from the late sixties onwards in the martial arts genre comprising roughly eighty-percent of his recorded filmography as a writer, producer, and director until his retirement into a film school teaching career. Wildly diverse, uneven, sometimes sloppy, sometimes stylistically ambitious – calling into question just how much of his filmography was actually as a director versus a supervising producer/director and how many of the co-directors and assistant directors actually helmed some of his films – a sampling of four of the director's better-known film is showcased here as Deadly Masters : Four Films by Joseph Kuo: 7 Grand Masters (1977): On the occasion of the king bestowing a royal banner to Zheng Yi Martial Arts School grandmaster Shangguan Zheng (Snake in the Eagle's Shadow's Jack Long) as the Champion of Jiangnan, a note fired into the ceremony on an arrow questions the legitimacy of the title. Shangguan had considered retiring soon, but now he intends to confirm his title by challenging the seven other provincial champions and their Tiger, Panther, Dragon, Snake and Eagle stances against his renowned Bai Mei fist. Accompanied by his daughter (The Deadly Angels' Nancy Yen), his senior student Yong Zhang (Shaolin Traitor's Mark Long) and juniors Tang Min (Deadly Silver Angels' Hsiao-Fei Li) and Nan Fei (The Devil's Wen-Pin Liu), Shangguan starts off on foot, first confronting and beating Sha (The One-Armed Boxer's Fei Lung), pulling his punch back before the death blow having established his superiority. His fight with Monkey Liu (The 36th Chamber of Shaolin's Yuet-Sang Chin) is witnessed by young Shao Niu (The Mystery of Chess Boxing's Yi-Min Li) who learns from an old man also observing that Shangguan is the best master from which he could learn kung fu (further directing him to the Han Shan Temple to train if Shangguan turns him away). Shao Niu begs Shangguan to take him on as a student but is constantly rebuffed by the master and his students; nevertheless, he doggedly pursues the retinue and does all of the grunt work. In spite of Shao Nu's persistence, Shangguan explains to his daughter his reluctance to pass on the Bai Mei technique because his own master was murdered for it by Shangguan's renegade brother Gu YiFeng (Last Hurrah for Chivalry's Alan Chung San Chui) who also made off with part of the Bai Mei fist manual explaining the three deadliest strikes and leaving Shangguan with the first nine. With each challenge, Shangguan becomes weaker and Shao Niu more necessary in shouldering some duties on the trip. When Shangguan finally takes him on as a student, we learn that Shao Niu has been looking for a master to train him to avenge himself on the man who killed his father; however, only his uncle Liu (Revenge of the Shaolin Master's Shen Yuen) knows that killer utilized the Bai Mei fist and may actually be Shao Niu's new master. Shot almost entirely in outdoor settings in daylight, The 7 Grandmasters is fairly straightforward for the most part, and perhaps the best introduction to the cinema of Joseph Kuo for better or worst. Kuo eschews wuxia wirework and fast cuts in favor of acrobatics and exaggerated foley work, and a generalized use of long takes for narrative scenes and for fight scenes in which the edits seem to be used only to accommodate the staging of the fights rather than to "punch up" the action. The film also hints at the messiness of Kuo's narrative construction more evident in his other works, with abrupt cutaways from the main story to scenes which may be easily confused with subplot or flashback – the subsequent discovery of the murdered Sha and the suspicion falling upon Shagguan as his killer does not result in a manhunt for the grandmaster any more so than the flashback scene depicting the murder of Shao Niu's father – as well as his tendency to compress the entirety of the story's third act into the last ten or fifteen minutes (this includes the entirety of Shao Nu's training under Shangguan's chief foe and the final showdown). Long is at least compelling going through the motions of a familiar character and shallow characterization while fellow Kuo fixture Yi-Min Li feels like another Bruce Lee-successor hopeful thanks to a stock genre character type and little in the writing to distinguish either the actor or the character from the glut of similar films and similar hopefuls (in some circles, a chunk of Kuo's output has been branded "Jackiesploitation"). The library track scoring includes the recurring use of Quincy Jones' theme from Roots.  In The 36 Deadly Styles (1980), young Wah-Jee (Enter Three Dragons' Lik Cheung) and his uncle (Dragon Lord's Chien-Po Tsen) are being pursued by Mie Tsu-Mun (Kung Fu Zombie's Lau Chan) and his men. Senior monk Huang (King Boxer's Tse Lin Yang) gives the pair sanctuary but must soon break his vow not to use his martial arts to kill when Mie Tsu-Mun and his men break in to finish off the uncle and nephew. Mie Tsu-Mun escapes, believing the two men dead; however, Wah-Jee survives and convalesces, after which he remains at the monastery doing menial tasks for Huang before he can start training in Shaolin martial arts to avenge his uncle's death on the gang lead by Lian Jing (Mark Long again) whose gang already murdered his father years before. Wah-Jee strikes up a flirtation with Tsui-Jee (Winter Blossom's Jeanie Chang), the daughter of an ox milk dealer (The Magnificent Butcher's Mei Sheng Fan), whose own fighting skills are superior to his own. Upon learning that Huang belonged to the group he was sent to exterminate, Mie Tsu-Mun summons his senior brothers (Enter the Dragon's Bolo Yeung and The Dragon, the Lizard, the Boxer's Kuo-Cheng Liu) to help him kill the monk. Wah-Jee and Tsui-Jee try to help defend Huang from the killers, only to be rescued by Tsui-Jee's father who must train both in the Eight Immortals Fist style (both previously possessing only, respectively, the defensive and offensive stances). While Lian Jing is on the trail of rival gang leader Kwang Wu-chun (Jack Long again) who knows the secret of the "36 Deadly Styles", formidable Jang Shu (Drunken Master's Jang-Lee Hwang) is traveling the country taking out other gang members, arriving in town just as Huang is most vulnerable and Wah-Jee must use a combination of his untested new skills and his own wits. One of the more widely-seen Joseph Kuo films – particularly in America where Lian Jing's English-dubbed rechristening as "Ghost Face Killer" inspired the Wu Tang Clan rapper moniker Ghostface Killah – The 36 Deadly Styles is a pretty middling viewing experience. Kuo whips back and forth between the main story and subplots abruptly, but then also pads out he running time with Wah-Jee's comic hijinks with his fellow monks that fail to make Brucesploitation regular Cheung as charismatic as Jackie Chan, and the seemingly important figure of Kwang Wu-chun does not turn up until the last fifteen minutes. The intercutting fights between Wah-Jee and Jung Shu and between Lian Jing and Kwang Wu-chun robs the former of some energy because the latter two characters are largely known by reputation in the dialogue (unless you know they are brothers Jack and Mark Long) while the viciousness of Jung Shu has been built up throughout the film – albeit by killing other barely-introduced characters – and he does inflict some major damage on the good guys (and has no qualms about harming women even as it is obvious he regards her fighting to be inferior); as such, the twin resolutions lead to a rather lopsided ending where Kuo seems to want the viewer to be as invested in Kwang Wu-chun's victory as that of Wah-Jee. The filmmaking feels more refined than that of the earlier The 7 Grandmasters, but the uneven quality of the other earlier films in this set make it hard to surmise that Kuo "improved" as a filmmaker or if there were other deciding factors in either his creative ambition or the production circumstances. Most recognizable in the library score include is the hilariously inappropriate (and presumably unauthorized) use of Henry Mancini's Pink Panther theme.  In The World of Drunken Master (1979), masters of the Drunken fighting style Fan Ta-Pei (Jack Long) and Beggar So (Sung Hsi Yu) were once the best of friends but parted ways over a girls, for "heroes do not shed tears easily" unless their heart is broken. Thirty years later, both men are mysteriously summoned to an inn. Each believing the other to have invited them, they are then suspicious about the identity of their host until they are served a cask of sweet premium wine. Over the drink, they look back on their early days when young Fan Ta-Pei (Mark Long again) and young Beggar So (Yi-Min Li again) were caught stealing premium grapes to sell at the market by vineyard manager Ah-Cheng (Fearless Hyena II's Hui-Lou Chen) who makes them work off what they have already taken. After rescuing the pair from being beaten up by gangster Tiger (Fei Lung again) and his protection collectors in the village – and to distract them from flirting with Yu-Lu (Jeanie Chang again), daughter of vineyard owner Cheng Qi (Attack Force Z's Yu Wang) – Ah-Cheng decides to train them in the Drunken style. Offended by Ah-Cheng intervening in this thrashing of Fan Ta-Pei and Beggar So, Tiger teams up with wealthy Chin (Ten-Hsiang Long) – practitioner of the "Eagle Claw" style – who wants to expand onto Cheng Qi's land and contrives a social offense to indebt the other man to him. Things turn deadly when Fan Ta-Pei and Beggar So good-naturedly try to make amends to Chin. In spite of its flashback structure, The World of Drunken Master is actually one of Kuo's more coherent films in this set, with some sub-Drunken Master comedy that is still amusing, a good performance by Hui-Lou Chen who ekes some depth from his character, a relatively charming youthful trio in Chang, Yi-Min, and Long, some excellent fighting scenes, and a surprisingly poignant ending in which one of the two masters realizes what is truly important. The villains are cardboard cutouts but suitably nasty enough to root for the heroes, and their running time-padding bumbling hijinks are entertaining enough. The unofficial Wong Fei-hung theme "On the General's Orders" makes an appearance here among other Kuo films. Siu-Tin Yuen – who had already played the character in both Drunken Master and The Story of Drunken Master – only appears as the middle-aged Beggar So during the opening credits despite his role being hyped in pre-production.  Next, Kuo gets away from period pieces with The Old Master (1979) in which seventy-year-old Grandmaster Wan (Jim-Yuen Yu) arrives in San Francisco at the invitation of former student Ding who owns a local gym. Easily fending off an ambush by a group of toughs including the man who picked him up at the airport, Wan learns from Ding that rival gyms have been beating up his students in an effort to get him to close up shop. Wan steps up to his former pupil's defense, taking advantage of his competitors underrating him for his advanced age; however, little does he know that Ding is actually setting up the matches in order to pay back his gambling debts to the mafia. While Ding feels some guilt about using his former master, the potential for profit is irresistible. When Wan discovers the truth, however, he disowns Ding but has no way to get back to Hong Kong. Bill (Death Promise's Bill Louie), who has been doing odd jobs at Ding's gym to pay for his own training, however, offers Wan a place to stay and a job at the hotel where he works part-time in exchange for training him in martial arts. While Wan prefers meditation and quite evenings in, Bill tries to rouse the older man to more fun activities like jogging, disco, and the company of his vivacious roommate "Fat Mary". Ding's enemies evidently did not get the memo since they keep coming after Wan and Bill as they plan to shut down Ding's gym for good with deadly prejudice. Predating Hark Tsui's The Master – in which Jet Li comes to America when his master is being terrorized by a former pupil turned bigtime competitor – The Old Master seems like it should be a fun culture-clash film; but Kuo undermines himself at every turn. In addition to the unlikely scenario of a mob-indebted gambler using a geriatric grandmaster against significantly younger competitors, it is quite obvious that Jim-Yuen is doubled in the many fight scenes where he is shown from behind or in long shot. There's little of scenic beauty in the film's scope vistas, with much of the fight scenes shot in suburban alcoves and the interiors of hotels and apartment buildings – some of which could have been pickup scenes in Taiwan or Hong Kong – and the pairing of Jim-Yuen and Louie lacks comedy or charisma. The "comic" highlight of the film is a visit to a disco that plays an odd Chinese-language disco rendition of "Popeye the Sailor Man" and Patrick Hernandez's monster one hit wonder "Born to Be Alive". While this is only scene in the film in which Jim-Yuen demonstrates much physicality, it goes on for far too long. The casting of Jim-Yuen possesses some significance since, although he only made one film, he was the man who trained the Three Dragons Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, and Yuen Biao along with the Yuen brothers and many others; however, only a small percentage of the audience would have known this, and this is hardly a physical showcase for him. The fight scenes featuring Louie are a bit more exciting, but some viewers may have forgotten just why they fights are taking place by the time the film remembers the setup. American martial artist Louie did manage to appear in a pair of Brucesploitation pics, the lesser-seen Bruce vs. Bill and the "documentary" Fist of Fear, Touch of Death in which he masqueraded as The Green Hornet's Kato. Starr Hester gets special billing as Bill's girlfriend Nancy. 
Video
7 Grand Masters was not released theatrically stateside until 1982 and in the UK on video until 1997 (cropped and unauthorized VHS releases of the English dub made their way stateside from a couple labels including Xenon's Wu Tang Collection line). While the UK got the cropped, English dub as an NTSC-to-PAL conversion on DVD from Eastern Heroes separately and in the Old Skool Double Bill (with Eagle's Claw), the US got an anamorphic widescreen version in 2004 from Media Blasters' Tokyo Shock line that was the best game in town at the time. Long available on VHS as part of Xenon's Wu Tang Collection line, The 36 Deadly Styles has only been available stateside on DVD from Xenon and Ventura Distribution in English-dubbed, cropped/squeezed transfers off aged video masters while the UK only got a semi-letterboxed, non-anamorphic DVD, and the Hong Kong Mei Ah and German DVDs were non-anamorphic but closer to the original aspect ratio (the former with fake "Sensurround" upmixing).  The World of Drunken Master was released stateside theatrically in 1980 and in unauthorized, cropped/squeezed dubbed versions on VHS on the Wu Tang Collection line, and on DVD from Ground Zero and EastWest before Tai Seng imported Mei Ah's Hong Kong edition which featured a non-anamorphic widescreen transfer and English subtitles. The UK did not get a release until 2001's poor-quality M.I.A. VHS cassette. While it is difficult to believe, The Old Master got a U.S. theatrical release – presumably the modern San Francisco setting was a draw for distributors and/or the audience – but no legit US video release until Tai Seng's VHS which hilariously painted Bill Louie to look like Jackie Chan. Mei Ah put out an R3 DVD featuring a non-anamorphic widescreen transfer. M.I.A.'s Old Skool Kung Fu also featured a non-anamorphic widescreen transfer but also the English dub which seems more fitting here given the setting and English-speaking characters. Given what we know about Hong Kong and overall Asian film preservation, specifically with regard to assembly line exploitation, 7 Grand Masters looks fairly unblemished, and the color "scheme" in the clothing and banners against gray and brown architecture that would now seem gaudy gives the image some saturated punch. Shadow detail varies in the daylight exteriors with the use of wide to up close zooms making fill lighting difficult while the night interiors and exteriors fortunately lack the modern blue push seen in some new grades of older films. Due to Kuo's editing style and the sometimes abrupt cuts, it is hard to tell if there are any missing frames at shot changes but there does not appear to be any frame damage within shots. On both this and The 36 Deadly Styles colors occasionally seem "over-ripe" in shadows and night scenes while sharpness is inconsistent due to the old anamorphic lenses and the jitter throughout the entire range of some zoom shots. Most of the films feature both Chinese and English title cards although some are digitally-recreated, and it is not clear if the Chinese prints originally had both cards or one card with both titles; and we have no idea if "The 36 Deadly Style" singular was how the English title originally appeared on Chinese prints (a bit of snake violence has made its way past the BBFC). The World of Drunken Master fares best in close-ups while long shots in the interiors reveal just how little depth-of-field the lighting and lenses afford with some characters stepping out of focus as soon as they are off their mark. The guerilla "aesthetic" of The Old Master looks particularly patchwork, with a lot of flatly-lit interiors and backstreet interiors looking less contrasty than the rooftop fight and the park jogging scenes where it almost seems that the camera crew is trying to go unnoticed (the original credits highlight the guest appearances of people most viewers do not know apart from Louie) but the color grading is often more naturalistic and calls less attention to itself than the period films. 
Audio
The 7 Grandmasters, The World of Drunken Master, The Old Master all have Mandarin, Cantonese, and English LPCM 1.0 mono options while The 36 Deadly Styles has Mandarin and English LPCM 1.0 mono options. The Mandarin tracks are the way to go even though everyone is dubbed, but the English tracks take things seriously for the most part, although it is obvious the voice actor for Chan Lau in The 36 Deadly Styles wants to go full Dean Shek and there are a few anachronsitic utterances of "son of a bitch." The Cantonese options are no more authentic than the Mandarin tracks since they are also dubbed. All films have optional English subtitles for the Mandarin tracks - also enabled for the Cantonese options - and an additional track for signs, text, and credits when English audio is chosen.
Extras
7 Grand Masters is accompanied by an by Asian film expert Frank Djeng and martial artist/filmmaker Michael Worth who discuss Kuo's approach to shooting – only utilizing stylistic flourishes like Dutch angles during the disorienting "monkey sequence" – recurring collaborators onscreen and off (including Golden Harvest star Angela Mao's brother Ching-Shun Mao), visual indicators of the film's temporal setting, the Longs, as well as brothers Corey Yuen and Shen Yuen), Kuo's influences from Akira Kurosawa, and Kuo's Taiwanese production company. The World of Drunken Master, they who provide comparisons to the other "Drunken Master" films, some trivia on the dubbers of the Chinese versions (including artists who worked up until Hong Kong adapted to sync sound with Supercop.  The 36 Deadly Styles features an audio commentary by action cinema experts Mike Leeder and Arne Venema who do provide background on Kuo, his studio, the incarnations of his studio logo and the Shawscope-"inspired" Hwahscope logo, and recurring cast members but approach the track on a more humorous bent, poking fun at the English dub, accurately describing Chan Lau as a "discount Dean Shek," Kuo's lack of subtlety in narrative and the equal lack of depth in the screenwriting, as well as the film's "rap ties." They are back for The Old Master, and their approach is more appropriate here given the film's absurdity (they even suggest that the film might have been thrown together as a front for some money laundering). They speak reverently of Jim-Yuen's reputation while also comparing his range of motion to present day Steven Seagal, discuss the specifics of the Three Dragons' Peking Opera "torture" training and poke fun at his "old people dancing", and note that the film seems uncertain whether its Brucesploitation or Jackiesploitation with regards to Louie's co-lead role. 
Overall
Given the uneven quality and overall cheapness of Joseph Kuo's films, the four-film Deadly Masters may or may not be seen as a better alternative to the limited edition eight-film set.
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